airside services: simplifying the transition to electronic

AIRSIDE SERVICES:
SIMPLIFYING THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS
A Jeppesen White Paper for Air Carrier Executives and Pilots
AIRSIDE SERVICES: SIMPLIFYING THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS
INTRODUCTION
Flight bags have long been essential tools in the aviation industry. Their contents, from aircraft and flight crew
operating manuals to navigational charts, guide airplane crews in everyday situations and in crisis. While the
bags contain resources critical to the safe operation of aircraft, they are also a burden. Weighing as much as
50 pounds or more, flight bags take their toll on the aviation professionals that tote them from one cockpit to
another. In addition to the physical strain they cause, flight bags require frequent, time-intensive, and costly
updates to ensure the information they provide is accurate.
In an effort to streamline operations and create efficiencies, air carriers throughout the world are
considering the business case for paperless alternatives and weighing pros and cons. While it is estimated that
fewer than five percent of globally operating commercial aircraft currently employ electronic solutions capable of
displaying critical chart information in all phases of flight, groundbreaking technological innovations,
including tablet technologies, are changing the industry’s outlook. The advanced solutions are facilitating
straightforward implementation and making the benefits of electronic flight bags (EFBs) easier to
realize than ever before.
As they transition to digital solutions, carriers also have an immediately available option for making chart and
manual updates more convenient and efficient. With Airside Services, pilots’ binders are revised and flight bags
delivered directly to aircraft around the globe. Available in conjunction with Jeppesen Airway Manuals®, Airside
Services facilitates a high quality, well organized revision process and effectively simplifies an important
responsibility of carriers and their staff – ensuring that accurate documentation is on board, on time, so the
crew can focus on safe flying.
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AIRSIDE SERVICES: SIMPLIFYING THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS
HOW EFBs SOLVE CHALLENGES OF TRADITIONAL FLIGHT BAGS
A pilot’s flight bag contains many critical charts and documents, including these:
Approach plates outlining all landing, alternate, and emergency airports
Flight Operation Manuals (FOMs)
Quick Response Handbooks (QRHs) for emergency and abnormal procedures
Company procedure and FAA regulations manuals
Minimum Equipment Lists (MELs) specific to the aircraft
Flight releases and more
Keeping such resources current requires a multi-step process in which revised documents are printed and
distributed to pilots, or other specified delegates, on a regular cycle. The pilots then manually amend the
binders and ensure that they are delivered to the aircraft, often by carting them there themselves. This process
is time-consuming, leaves room for errors and inconsistency, creates a higher risk of airplane-on-ground (AOG)
events, risks employee injury, and has a negative impact on crew morale.
Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 121 outlines the rules regarding the preparation, contents,
distribution, availability, and requirements for scheduled air carrier manuals. Learn more.
Major carriers as well as smaller airlines and individual pilots are discovering that EFBs and related
solutions are viable alternatives to traditional flight bags. Effectively storing aviation information in digital format,
EFBs offer the advantages of reduced costs, fewer medical claims related to the handling of heavy flight bags,
and increased efficiency.
EFBs are divided into three hardware classes:
Class 1: These are considered portable electronic devices (PEDs), including standard
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment such as laptops and handheld electronic devices.
Class 2: Also PEDs, these EFBs range from modified COTS equipment to purpose-built devices that are mounted in the aircraft with displays viewable to the pilot during all phases of flight.
Class 3: These are considered “installed equipment” and are subject to strict airworthiness requirements.
Historically, Class 1 EFBs had to be turned off during takeoff and landing, when charts and manuals are often
most critical, but recent testing and authorizations by the FAA are opening up new potential for PEDs as avionics
instruments. In addition, handheld electronic devices and their associated apps now offer a greater range of
capabilities. The innovations pose new possibilities for carriers who are working to establish plans and
procedures for EFB implementation, device management, security, IT infrastructure, and content distribution.
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AIRSIDE SERVICES: SIMPLIFYING THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS
JEPPESEN AIRSIDE SERVICES COMBINES TRADITIONAL WITH TECHNOLOGICAL
An interim solution for carriers transitioning to EFBs and a digital flight deck, Airside Services helps reduce
paper dependency and streamlines the process of revising critical flight documentation. It delivers a higher
quality and more accurate revision process than the traditional approach. Navigation charts, technical document
amendments, and other needed resources are professionally edited, maintained, printed, and compiled before
being delivered directly to aircraft. Labor costs are reduced as carriers make a significant step toward a more
efficient, paperless environment.
Below are key benefits of Airside Services:
Quality
Variability is a key concern in the current revision process for flight bag materials. Each pilot takes a different
approach to amending his/her binders. Airside Services, on the other hand, is executed by Jeppesen employees
trained for one purpose: amending documentation to ensure accuracy and consistency. The dedicated amenders
take pride in knowing they are a critical link in keeping aircraft flying safely around the world.
With Airside Services, Jeppesen monitors every phase of the revision process, from unpacking the bags and
amending the binders with up-to-date and accurate data to repacking and distributing the bags to destinations
around the world. The amendment process includes inspection of each binder for pilot comment cards and
utilization of radio-frequency identification (RFID) to interrogate an entire bag and its contents for accuracy,
helping to ensure a safe flight and efficient process.
Pilot Value
Pilots consider the Jeppesen service a significant benefit and a contributor to a higher quality of life. Not only
does Airside Services increase morale, but pilots are free to focus on more important tasks. In addition, risk of
injury is reduced when crew members are not tasked with lugging heavy bags around airports and into cockpits.
“US Airways’ goal is to eventually transition the flight deck to an all-electronic system. By partnering
with Jeppesen Airside Services, we save our pilots from the tedious process of updating and carrying
around heavy flight manuals. Jeppesen Airside Services are the perfect bridge to transition to electronic delivery and also eliminate unnecessary waste, making it environmentally responsible as well.” – Captain Ed Bular, US Airways Senior Vice President, Flight Operations/Inflight
Lower Labor Costs
With Airside Services, staff who are trained to efficiently amend binders and prepare flight bags work tirelessly
to streamline the revision process and ensure timely delivery. This relieves the jet librarians typically hired by
carriers of the time-consuming task.
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AIRSIDE SERVICES: SIMPLIFYING THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS
The ratio of commercial pilots to airplanes is approximately 8:1. Major labor cost savings are
achieved by delivering charts and manuals to aircraft rather than to pilots.
Airside Services helps Jeppesen customers move toward a paperless environment. While a digital cockpit may
be a longer term goal for many carriers, of primary concern is a transition to ship set navigation – the efficient
delivery of and easy access to all necessary flight charts and manuals. This is something that is delivered by
Airside Services today.
HOW IT WORKS
THE PROCESS: A SYSTEM FOR QUALITY AND EFFICIENCY
Process Diagram
Airside Services provides a streamlined process that
includes these steps: delivery of up-to-date documents,
removing/returning old sets, inspection for accuracy,
amendment, and lastly, packing and shipping.
DELIVERY
Delivery
A proprietary, advanced flight deck delivery (FDD) scheduling
system ensures timely, reliable delivery around each airline’s
flowboard information. Jeppesen or contracted third-party
vendors that Jeppesen hand selects retrieve expired
documents and distribute updated versions across entire
fleets around the world.
PACKING &
SHIPPING
RETURN OF
OLD SET
Return of Old Set
Once bags are collected from aircraft at a given location,
asset tracking is put in place and bags are routed to an
Airside Services center.
AMENDMENT
INSPECTION
Inspection
When the shipment of bags returns from the field all materials are carefully inspected. Pilot comment cards are
reviewed, since they advise of missing, worn, or potentially damaged pages. Any damaged or missing binders are
repaired or replaced as needed.
Amendment
When the revision content is ready, it is printed using Color-Print-On-Demand (CPOD) technology and reviewed
for accuracy. It is then added to binders by trained, dedicated Jeppesen employees across several shifts.
Destination booklets are replaced as needed ensuring consistent 100% quality at the most frequented
locations. Final content is quality checked again before it is readied for packing.
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AIRSIDE SERVICES: SIMPLIFYING THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS
Destination Booklets
Jeppesen’s destination booklets include all necessary charts from a single location. Easy to access and
use, the booklets are backed by a 100% quality guarantee. Since they are perfect bound, the risk of
missing sheets is highly unlikely. Whenever a single sheet within a location is revised, the entire
booklet is reprinted with COPD technology, bound, and distributed through Airside Services.
Packing & Shipping
During the final step of the process, binders are packed into bags, bag content is verified, and bags are packed
into containers. Airside Global System (AGS), a proprietary scheduling system, ensures that
containers arrive at their target locations on time.
Leveraging RFID Technology for Quality & Efficiency
RFID technology enables the following important features of Airside Services to help simplify the process and provide accurate data:
Automated quality checks during revision, amendment, and packing
The elimination of a single point of failure in flight deck aircraft identification
Automated completion of flight deck delivery and reporting
Enhanced tracking of Airside Services assets, including current information about set locations and bag/binder history
Improved forecasting and planning for amendment and delivery
AGS: ADVANCED FLIGHT DECK DELIVERY SCHEDULING
The logistics of catching aircraft operating on tight schedules around the world to swap bags are complex.
Jeppesen must predict where each aircraft will be within a few days in order to cycle outdated bags for updated
versions. A unique scheduling optimizer, AGS leverages flowboard information from the airlines to effectively
meet this logistics challenge and deliver bags to thousands of aircraft worldwide.
SEA
OSL
GLA
ARN
ABZ
DND
EDI
GOT
BFS
MKE
BOS
ORD
OAK
SFO
PIT
MDW
RNO
SLC
DEN
SDF
LGA
IAD
CVG
LAS
MEM
PHX
DFW
BHM
PNS
NCL
MME
LBA
MAN
PVD
CPH
DSA
BHX
CWL
JFK
PHIL
EXT
BRS
BOH
CVT
LTN
STN
LHR
LGW
AMS
SXF
LGG
LEJ
FRA
CDG
LUX
ORY
GSO
ILM
MYR
CHS
SAV
MCO
TPA
LPL
EMA
DCA
LEX
CLT
ALT
DUB
BDL
PBI
GVA
BSL
LYS
MXP
LIS
MAD
FCO
FLL
ATH
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AIRSIDE SERVICES: SIMPLIFYING THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS
AGS tracks each aircraft in a customer’s fleet and recommends the best delivery point given flowboard
information, including planned and unplanned maintenance stops. The system uses several parameters, such as
effective dates of charts, aircraft schedules, and freight carrier rates, to deliver the right bag to the right aircraft
at the right time.
AGS also has a customer-facing component that provides near-real-time reporting of bag location and aircraft
delivery status during each cycle, offering a level of tracking and reporting unprecedented in traditional pilot
issue operations. Airline employees know exactly what has been delivered and what is pending and are able to
read delivery agent comments for details.
Airside Services combines Jeppesen’s extensive aviation industry expertise with advanced
scheduling tools to benefit major carriers and their staffs.
CONCLUSION:
CHOOSING CONVENIENCE IN A DIGITAL AGE
The aviation industry is headed toward significant change in the way critical flight information is delivered
to the cockpit and kept current. The charts and manuals that inform flight crews and guide aircraft to safety
are among the vital tools to be digitized. As major carriers build a business case for adopting new paperless
technologies, including EFBs, they balance the advantages to be gained through technology with the reality of
current-day operations.
Airside Services is easing the transition to electronic solutions with modern technology that ensures the on-time
delivery of quality flight charts and manuals to aircraft. The services are customized to the needs of each carrier
to offer an optimal boost to daily operations and staff morale.
At any point in the transition to digital cockpits, carriers can rely on Jeppesen’s aviation expertise and find
advanced solutions for efficient operations and safe flying.
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AIRSIDE SERVICES: SIMPLIFYING THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS
ABOUT JEPPESEN
For more than 75 years Jeppesen (www.jeppesen.com) has made it possible for pilots and their passengers to
safely and efficiently reach their destinations. Today this pioneering spirit continues as Jeppesen delivers essential information and optimization solutions to improve the efficiency of air, sea and rail operations around the
globe. Jeppesen is a subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, a unit of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
To learn more about Jeppesen’s Airside Services, click here.
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